the world of organic agriculture - Organic Eprints

5 Organic Farming Worldwide 2006:
Overview & Main Statistics
Minou Yussefi 1
5.1 Global Overview
Organic agriculture has developed rapidly worldwide during the last few years and is now
practiced in approximately 120 countries of the world. Its share of agricultural land and farms
continues to grow. Furthermore, it can reasonably be assumed that uncertified organic farming
is practiced in even more countries.
The Foundation Ecology & Agriculture SOEL and the Research Institute of Organic Agriculture
FiBL have collected data about organic farming worldwide every year since 1999. Since the
publication of the 2003 results, IFOAM has collaborated in the project.
According to the latest survey, more than 31 million hectares are currently managed organically
by at least 623’174 farms worldwide (see corresponding tables). The eighth edition of this study
includes figures for the area of certified forest and ’wild harvested plants’, which adds at least
another 19.7 million hectares, summing up to more than 51 million hectares in total. The market
for organic products is also growing, not only in Europe and North America (which are the major
markets), but also in many other countries, including several developing countries (see chapter
on the global organic market).
Graph 2: Land use of the certified area worldwide, Source: FiBL Survey 2005 / 2006
1 Minou Yussefi, Foundation Ecology & Agriculture SOEL, Weinstrasse Sued 51, 67098 Bad Duerkheim, Germany, Tel.
+49 6322 989700, E-mail info@soel.de, Internet www.soel.de
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